Fille ou garçon ?

(Girl or boy?)Book not yet available in English

Summary:

A little elephant wonders what the difference is between girls and boys. It’s easy to tell who is big, who is little, and who is a grandparent, but not who is a boy or a girl. Then one day, mummy has another baby. The little elephant finds the answer when the new baby has a bath! Yet he soon comes to realise it’s not that straightforward.

Comment:

The deceptively simple story shows how complex it is to tell the difference between girls and boys. The little elephant sees the biological difference when the new baby has a bath. But after wondering page after page what the difference is and finding the biological answer, more questions immediately crop up. There are no easy answers, as the end flyleaf (which echoes the front flyleaf) shows: boys and girls can play whatever they like – ball games, skipping, dolls – and swap toys, whatever the stereotypes say. In the end, biological sex doesn’t matter much in daily life.

Edited by:
University Library "Livres au Trésor" and the Research Centre "Pléiade" of the University of Paris 13 (France)